Q20 - Social observer: Advertising agencies are willfully ne

[Laura Damone]

Question Type:
Sufficient Assumption

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: Advertising agencies can maximize their clients' profits if they gear their advertisements mainly to older adults.

Evidence: Older adults control more of the nation's disposable personal income than the rest of the population combined. Advertising agencies are willfully neglecting this segment of the market.

Answer Anticipation:
Maximizing client profits is a concept introduced in the conclusion. That's not allowed in a valid argument, so the correct answer must connect this concept to a concept in the premises. The degree word "mainly" is also worth noting in the conclusion since it doesn't appear in the premises. Expect wrong answers that would help prove a similar conclusion, but without that precise degree.

Correct answer:
E

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Premise booster! We don't need to know why older people have more disposable income.

(B) Tempting! This answer says maximizing profits depends on marketing primarily to those who control the most personal disposable income. It's linking up the right concepts, and it has the right degree, but it's moving in the wrong direction. Our conclusion is that this practice can maximize profits. In other words, marketing to older folks is sufficent to maximize profits. But B presents this practice as necessary to maximize profits. A classic trap. Eliminate!

(C) "Improve the reputation of its products"? That's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to maximize our clients' profits. Eliminate!

(D) Like B, this connects the right concepts and has the right degree but moves in the wrong direction, presenting marketing to old folks as necessary, rather than sufficient.

(E) Bingo! It links the right concepts, has the right degree, and moves in the right direction.

Takeaway/Pattern:
The most challenging Sufficient Assumption questions will have an incorrect answer that is the illegal reversal of the correct answer. To navigate this, make sure you know the direction of any conditional conclusion. That direction must be reflected in the correct answer. Don't be afraid to diagram on your scratch paper! If you did that for this question, it might look like so:
p: Old folks ---> Control most income c: Advertise to old folks ---> maximize profits. What's the missing link? Advertise to those who control most income ---> Maximize profits.

Now, if you didn't happen to see these conditional relationships, but you eliminate all answers that don't link up the right things, you'll be left with three answers, B, D and E. Two of them, B and D, are the same. Since we can't have two right answers, they must be wrong, leaving you with E.

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